It's not all doom and gloom

First off, isn't this a nice shiny new blog? You should see the interface too, it's very pretty and much easier to use than the old one.

Anyway, long time readers of this blog will know by now that I am Bitter and Cynical about 95% of FFXI related things, and have spent all but two of my posts whining and complaining. After a conversation with Demajen on the subject, I decided to post something that shockingly is in fact upbeat and positive!

After all, for all my bitching, it's not all bad and I have in fact met some very nice people during my FFXI gaming. Without the members of USAChan, I'd stilll be stuck at level 50. Without the legendary Promyvion Death Squad* I'd never have seen Lufaise Meadows. Without the Ansible linkshell, I'd still probably be rank 5.

Also, as distinct from my experience in WoW, in FFXI there are occasional random acts of 'niceness' I've encountered that have stuck in my mind. And because it is a sunny Friday, I'm going to relate one for your edification and delight.

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The first incident happened a long time ago, pre-fishing patch. I was fishing in Knightwell in West Ron., a favourite spot of mine in those days, and noticed another player fishing nearby. Pre-patch the fishing bite rates were incredibly erratic and generally poor on anything except full moon/new moon, and so there were plenty of "You didn't catch anything" messages. After a while of fishing I started using /angry and /sigh from time to time when I failed to catch a fish. The other fisher (who was JP) joined in and it helped fill in the long recast times.

Eventually, the JP fisher's rod broke and he /cry'd and said "{rod}{death}". In my pre-Lu Shang days I always carried a spare fishing rod, and so I ran over to him /trade'd and said "{rod} {You can have this.}" and gave him my spare. The spare was a Glass Fibre Rod if I recall correctly, not the greatest ever made but better than none at all.

Soon after I logged out and forgot all about it. A day or two later, I logged in and checked my Delivery Box. To my surprise the player I had lent the rod to had not only returned it, but had also sent me a brand new Carbon Rod (at the time the best small fish rod available pre-Shangs). I always thought that was a very nice thing to do, and the new Carbon Rod served me well for many moons until it finally broke trying to reel in a Gold Carp in Windhurst.

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* The Promyvion Death Squad was born out of USAChan members but over the months expanded to include many others. Notable feats included going 1/9 on Promyvion-Mea and a more modest 1/3 on Promyvion Holla. The Death Squad in many ways shows the good side of FFXI players, as regular members Soran and Revaude had actually completed all the Promyvions much earlier, but still went through numerous agonising deaths and infuriating close defeats for the benefit of those that hadn't. And we got there in the end!